FINALIST

Opting
for the conventional video game story line, about a mentally deranged man who
creates an Armageddon device, and threatens to use this weapon to destroy
mankind. You must climb aboard your B1 hover-craft and single handed partake in
a number of missions, which will thread you through the vast underground
tunnels, leading to a final battle with this mad-man.

The short
introductory FMV, shows your ship being launched from the mother-ship, then
looking back to see it being destroyed. The most noticeable thing about the
intro is the cloud formation in space, strange. The graphics are not very clear
and look quite grainy, but take no notice of the FMV quality, as Ocean have
obviously saved the main budget for the in-game graphics, which makes a pleasant
change.

Finalist
is the first project from Oceans recently formed partnership with German
developer Neon. If you are a fan of Doom type shoot-em-ups, Wipeout racing
games, or Descent style flight missions, then read on. Finalist includes all
these qualities, skillfully blended together to produce a first class game.

The
graphical effects used in Finalist work superbly to create an immensely
realistic in-game atmosphere. The craft moves incredibly smooth at high speeds
and the visuals look as sharp as Wipeout, this creates a perfect balance between
graphics, special effects and speed, which does not sacrifice the flow of the
game.

Game developers , Neon, have used the most advanced 3D engine yet
seen on the Playstation, and it certainly shows. The tunnel walls are highly
detailed (unlike Descent), and don't suffer from the 'see through walls' and
other graphical glitches that spoil so many other games.

One of the
most impressive features of Finalist are the incredible lighting effects.
Whether your craft is attacked by a laser gun, where the piercing green beam may
cut your health in half, or the tripod rocket launchers that lob their missiles
haphazardly in your direction, the resulting explosions will light up the dark
recesses with superb light sourcing. One outstanding lighting effect in the
game is shown when an enemy craft appears on the horizon and blocks your path by
spewing missiles across the road ahead. As the fully lit craft swoops back and
forth, you are stunned by the visual splendor that would look fitting in a
blockbuster movie such as I.D. or Close Encounters.

The
music is a first class mission score, complementing the action perfectly. It
plays quietly in the background during the early parts of the game, and changes
to an adrenaline pumping orchestration as you frantically battle through the
tunnel in a race against the clock, sounding like a cross between the
soundtracks of The Dirty Dozen and Thunderbirds.

The noises of
explosions are accurately portrayed, having a slight echoed sound which would be
expected in a closed tunnel surrounding.

The
options offer a difficulty choice in the form of starting the game with 1 - 6
lives and 2 continues. You may also record your highest scores, load or save a
game and make use of the facility to configure your controller. Now this is
important, as I must admit that I almost gave up with Finalist through
frustration at controlling the craft. I would recommend that you play around
with the first level over and over again until you feel comfortable handling
your craft. The strafe button was the most difficult to get used to, as instead
of using the usual shoulder buttons, you only have one button, which when
pressed, changes the D pad to strafe left and right. Without the ability to
strafe, this game can become very difficult, but persevere and you shall be
rewarded.

OK, lets get into the game. You begin level 1 armed with a
puny pea-shooter of a gun, and your first mission is to upgrade your weapons by
blasting every container in sight, collecting all the contents of which some are
power-ups and others are score points. As your craft smoothly hovers above the
surface, you will immediately notice that you are not subjected to the sickly
360 degree acrobatics that are usually associated with flying games and the
feel is similar to flying a Wipeout craft. Doors are opened by crossing a
pressure pad to allow you to advance through the tunnel. When facing oncoming
fire, the best tactic is to take refuge behind a crate, then peek and shoot. If
your health drops to a danger point, a warning is given, upon this you must seek
out a radioactive container and re-charge. This requires swift movement, as the
container must be blown up and the power-up collected in a matter of seconds.
Too late and the health bonus becomes reactive and will be rendered useless.

The
next two levels are played in much the same mould, and allow you to arm yourself
with a triple barrel machine gun, rockets and missiles as primary weapons, with
a flare that attracts incoming homing missiles and mines which are used to blow
open doors, as your secondary weapons.

Halfway through the third level
you are probably wondering why the screen displays a countdown timer and 3 speed
ups, when all of a sudden a warning flashes up on your screen to exit the tunnel
immediately. Using the map screen for direction, you must race against the
clock to complete the level before this section of the tunnel self destructs, so
make sure your health is well topped up, as you will not have time to stop.
This is just a warm up for the following levels, which are all against the
clock.

The game now changes to a straightforward Wipeout type race, as
you must manoeuvre around a long winding track, avoiding crates and a couple of
annoying drones, to reach a checkpoint in an allowed time. Complete this tricky
level and you are faced with further racing levels against the clock , but
including a number of missions to complete on your travels. You will find that
huge sections of each level are cordoned off, and can only be accessed by
opening the colored blast doors that block your way. If you find you face a
blue door, you must seek out the blue reactor and destroy it, then race back
through all the blue doors before they close and lock you in. Failure to escape
has fatal results as radiation sweeps through your ship.

Finalist is
one of the most attractive and appealing games I have seen this year and is a
credit to both Ocean and Neon.

Fast,
Frantic and gorgeous to look at. Doom, Descent and Wipeout all wrapped up
together. All the levels look similar but the action changes dramatically.
Includes some of the best lighting special effects seen on the Playstation

After
a frustrating learning curve, I have now got to grips with the control of the
craft and am thoroughly enjoying the varying gameplay. This is turning out to
be one of thebest games of the year, and once the game is completed, you can
restart and play again for the highest score.